Yahya Kemal, who is one of the most powerful poets of today, was born in 1884 in Uskup. He died in Istanbul in1958. He never forgot the glorious periods of Ottoman empire and his longing for Balkans. He went to Paris in his youth and entered Political Sciences school. He turned back to Istanbul nine years later and worked as Warsaw, Madrid, Karasi ambassador. He was elected as deputy from Tekirdağ and Istanbul. He could not publish his poems when he was alive. His books were published after his death. His real name is Agah. Since he was from the grandsons of Sehsuvar Pasha, he took the surname Beyatlı. Yahya Kemal, who went to Paris in 1903, thus saved himself from being influenced by Abdulhak Hamit and Tevfik Fikret, who greatly influenced Turkish poetry before him.
However, that Albert Sorel who taught European History in the Political Sciences Faculty he attended, nearly did not talk about Ottomans at all, harmed his national pride. So, Yahya Kemal, studying Rising Period of his history, became an Istanbul poet at last. Yahya Kemal's first poems were published under the name Bulunmuş Sayfalar after 1912, but he did it very rare. The date of publication of his Açık Deniz poem he wrote in Paris in 1912 is 1925. The reason why he did so is his fastidiousness and his habits he obtained from French poets he saw.
Since he weighed vocal structure of words and prosody harmony in poetry, he constantly changed his lines. However, he started to publish poems frequently in the last fifteen years of his life. Yahya Kemal, who was brought up with a good cultural education, worked for a University between 1915 and 1923 in Istanbul and taught "Western Literature History" and "Civilization History" lessons.
The great poet who attended Losan Peace Delegation in 1922 as consultant was elected as Urfa deputy for Second Turkish Parliament in 1923, and became our Warsaw ambassador in 1926, and Madrit in 1929. Then he attended Turkish Parliament again as a deputy and remained as a deputy until seventh election period. Beyatli taught Western Literature fo a period of time in the University. But since he was not prepared for that kind of education, he could not continue. Rather, he transferred his knowledge and emotions to others. His famous Emirgan conversations lasted for years.
Although he has prose writings, articles and conversations except for his poems, his real personality is determined by poetry. His books comprise three groups: Lyric poems and similar poems he wrote under influence of old poetry, real Istanbul poems, and simple poems in which metaphysic or philosophical issues such as death and post-death were the topic. His historical taste revealed itself especially in Istanbul poems and his historical knowledge was deepened on Istanbul's conquest.
Yahya Kemal Beyatlı was an artist confident in himself. He did not like other artists easily. He was happy for having fans of him around him. He liked reading poems with a certain melody, whether or not it was appropriate for that individual poem. He was cheerful and was full of imaginary fears. He ceased his relations with his family completely. One sentence he uttered in Ataturk's presence during dinner is reputed:
Atatür asked:
- Yahya Kemal Bey, What did you like in Ankara most?
The new deputy replied:
- Turning back to Istanbul, my Pasha...
Melek Celal Sofu (painter) remembers that he could not marry Celile Hanim, with whom he fell in love in his youth, deprived him of being able to set up a home for all of his lifetime and no woman could make him forget that love. Many poems such as Erenköyü'nde Bahar and Geçmiş Yaz are consequences of this love.
On the other hand, we see that he wrote a advertisement poem consisting of two lines for Kavaklıdere Wine Factory in years he underwent financial troubles much:
Biz veda etmek üzereyiz kedere
Getir ahbap bir Kavaklıdere
Yahya Kemal had more of a power of turning a simple sentence into a poem. He turned Suleyman Nazif's sentence about İbnü'l Emin Mahmud Kemal into a poem with addition of one more line as follows:
Ne kendi kimseye benzer, ne kimse kendisine,
Being the the original sentence, he added

Hezâr gıbta o devr-i kadîm efendisine
Ne kendi kimseye benzer ne kimse kendisine
and turned it into a poem.
The product of his literary life more than forty years is less than forty pieces of works. But they are all distinguished and unique.